How to see, describe and even construct an urban space through moving images? Looking through the camera lens and sampling what we see into a video reportage, we explored Singapore’s fragmented borderlands. At the same time, the explorations led to questions on cultural aesthetics and hidden ideologies of images. A video work is closely tied to a territory; a moving image and a map are considered as complementary ways of seeing urban space.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the students, collaborators and experts who contributed to Images of Territory. A special thanks to professor Christophe Girot and video artists Susanne Hofer, Marc Westhof and Marie Laverre who helped us set up and teach the course. We are grateful to guests Charles Lim, Bas Princen, Benjamin Leclair-Paquet and Naomi Hanakata, and to the Pigeonhole for hosting the final review.

Singapore’s water collection system covers the island’s territory, from small gutters surrounding the blocks of HDB flats to channels bringing water through different neighbourhoods. Following raindrops through these infrastructures shows a complex landscape of water, where security and efficiency are more valued than urban interactions.

A new part of the city is being built in the north of the Singapore island. Water is used here as an attraction for investors to build new condominiums around it. The film captures a moment when a water channel is already built and used for recreation whilst the surrounding city is still under construction.

A lorry travel depicts a sequential section through the city. From a foreign workers dormitory to a construction site, Tampines to Marina South, the route leads along familiar sights in the Singapore’s landscape.